Valve



July 12, 1955 D, B, NICKERSON 2,712,827

Filed March 26, 1951 L 2 Sheets-Sheet l o o G O O 2/ 0 o o o U G O 6 lbQ Q G I I D 0 l3 l5 ZIJ 2k:

IN V EN TOR. DOUGLAS 5 N/C/(ERSOA/ ATTORNEY July 12, 1955 Filed March26, 1951 D. B. NICKERSON 2,712,827

VALVE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 HYDRAUL/C FLU/D INVENTOR. DOUGLAS'B lV/C/(ERSO/VBY ATTORNEY United States Patent iiiihce 7 Claims. (Cl. 137-5 8) Thisinvention relates to control valve systems and more particularly to suchsystems adapted to control the injection of fluids.

An object of the invention is to provide such a system which hascompactness and relatively simple manifolding, together with efficientoperation.

Valve systems according to this invention are especially useful withcombustion chambers in which liquid fuels or propellants are burned; andhave been used particularly with jet propulsion motors of the liquidpropellant type. Heretofc-re it has been a practice to operate liquidtype jet propulsion motors by injecting into the combustion chamber ofthe motor a liquid fuel such as aniline and a liquid oxidizer such asfuming nitric acid. These ulcls are kept separate from other and areseparately ted into the chamber. Being spontaneo sly cornbusuble witheach other, combustion will occur on contact with each other within thechamber. it has been a practice to i ect both the fuel and the oxidizerinto separate manifolds under sufiicient pressure to overcome thechamber pressure. An example of such an arrangement is that described inPatent No. 2,405,465 to Summerfield. A considerable number of injectionori fices into the chamber is ordinarily required for eliectiveoperation; and in those prior arrangements the man ifold for each fluidcarried the fluid to the region of the several orifices.

Such a prior arrangement has a disadvantage particularly in very largemotors where the flow of propellant through it is large; and this is duelargely to the flow through the manifold itself.

Another disadvantage of some prior systems for injecting the twopropellants has resided in the fact that when the ijection of the twopropellants is not started exactly sir; .taneously or when the injectionis started at or near the full normal rate of fiow during operation,there is accumulated some of the propellant in the motor chamber beforecombustion occurs. Such accumulations are dangerous because whencombustion does occur, there is more of the propellant in the chamberthan is intended, with consequent danger of explosion.

in accordance w'th the present invention the disadvantages of the priorvalve mechanisms are overcome, and the advantage of the presentinvention is especially experienced when used with large motors. I carryout my invention by the provision of a compact unit which includes themotor chamber, the propellant control mechanism and the distributionmanifold.

A. feature of the arrangement is that the operation of one or the valvesis sad to operate all of the valves of the system simultaneously, sothat there is a simultaneous fiOW of both liquids.

The arrangement eliminates the use of separate manifolding and therebyreduces the volume of fluid passing between a propellant control valveand the injector orifices.

Another feature resides in the provision or" means causing a graduallyincreasing rate of flow of the propellant Fatented July EQES beginningwith a relatively slow flow and increasing to the full rate ofpropellant flow.

The foregoing and other features of the invention will be betterunderstood from the following detailed description and the accompanyingdrawings of which:

Fig. 1 shows a top view, partially in cross section on line 11 of Fig.2, of a unit according to this invention; and

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown in crosssection a portion ofthe cylindrical chamber wall 10 of a combustion chamber 2, ordinarilythe chamber of a rocket motor, to the forward end of which there isattached as by welding, 21 flange or ring 11. An injector head 12 ismounted on the flange 11; and this injector head is a combined controlvalve and injector in accordance with this invention.

The injector-valve device comprises a manifold member 13 which isclamped down against the flange 11 by a plate 14 held to the flange byclamping nuts and bolts 15; and the member 13 is further secured to themanifold by a ring of studs 16.

The manifold 13 comprises a depressed central portion 17 above whichthere is fitted a central injector housing 18, the bottom of thishousing leaving a space 19. The manifold also comprises an annulardepression 2! at the sides. Above this manifold portion 24 there arelocated respective housings 21, 21a, 21b and 210, and these providerespective spaces 22 between the bottom of the housing and the manifoldportion 26.

The housing It; comprises a cylinder 23 with a lower housing 23.: withan inlet opening 24 having cross-section view taken at line Within tiecylinder is a piston or plunger 26 having a depending pintle 27 flaringconically to a valve portion 28 which seats on a valve seat 2% fittedinto the central opening in the lower end or" the cylinder. Between theplunger 26 and the head 30 of the housing 18 there is a compressedhelical spring 31 to tend to keep the valve in its seated position. Thevalve stem 32 extending upwardly from the piston is fastened to a capmember 33. To prevent leakage, 0 rings 34 and 35 are provided.

An orifice 36 is formed through the erate the piston.

For the purpose of directing the flow of fluid sent through the valve,guides 38 are provided so that when the valve is lifted by pressure ofthe fluid entering through the opening 24, it is injected through theannular passage 39 between the valve and the wall of the valve seat.guide serves to maintain the pintle concentric with the valve seat.

For the purpose of reducing weight while providing a relative wideannular ring for the injection of fluid past the valve, the valveincluding its stem is made hollow by the provision of the hollow space49, from the top down to the closure at the bottom.

Each of the four housings 21 is provided arrangement analogous to thatof the main valve in hous ing 18. A valve stem 41 within a cylinder 9carries a valve 42 at its lower en which seats on a circular valve seat43, the valve continuing downwardly in a generally cylindrical manner at44 to leave an annular space 45 through which fluid passes the valvewhen the valve is raised from its seat. The valve 44 is quite similar tothe main valve 28 and it is provided at its lower surface with guides 45which serve to maintain the pintle concentric with the valve seat. Thevalve stem is slidable with a valve ing member 41 downwardly pass thevalve until through an opening in head 46 at the top of the cylinder 9,and to prevent leakage suitable 0 rings 47 are provided. At the upperend of the valve stem there is fitted a collar 48 which is slidable overthe stern, and this sleeve is welded at 49 to an arm 5% reinforced by acentral web 51 extending to the sleeve 33 which is rigidly secured tothe member 32. The web 51 is secured to sleeve 33 by welding at 52.Beneath the sleeve 48 there is placed over stem 41 another sleeve 53which rests on a nut 54 screwed onto stem 41. Between the lower flange55 of member 53 and the bottom of member 50, there is compressed ahelical spring 56 which has the effect of urgso that the valve seats.The collar 48 is retained by a stop nut 57 fastened to the valve stem41. Nuts 57 and 54 provide adjustment of stem 41 with respect to collar48. The valve and its stem 41 are made hollow, providing the hollowspace 8, for the purpose of reducing weight.

The housing or cylinder 9 is provided with an inlet opening 58 leadinginto a chamber 59 above the valve to admit fluid to this chamber, sothat when the valve is lifted the fluid is injected into the manifoldchamber 22.

Each of the other three housings 21a, 21b and 210' is similarly providedwith a valve arrangement and a connection tothe sleeve 33 so that all ofthe valves are operated in unison.

The annular manifold 26 is provided with orifices at 60, and themanifold 17 is provided with orifices 61, there being a multiplicity ofthese orifices 61 arranged to coincide with the respective orifices 60.Thus in Fig. 2 an orifice 61 is directed to intercept the axis oforifice 60.

In operation, the fluids to be injected will be coupled to therespective inlet openings 24 and 58 by conduits (not shown). Thus onefluid, for example, an oxidizer such as red fuming nitric acid will becoupled to the inlet openings 58 of reach of the fluid will fillchambers 59 under pressure but will not the valve is open. Similarly, aconduit will be connected at inlet 24 of the central injector and thefluid to be injected through it, for example aniline, will be sentthrough a conduit connected to the opening so that the fluid will fillthe chamber 8 (which is upstream from valve 28) but will not pass thevalve 28 until the latter is opened. All of the valves will normally bemaintained in a closed position due to the action of the compressedhelical springs 31 and 56. The valves will all be opened simultaneouslyby the pressure of the fluid introduced through orifice 24 into chamber8. The pressure in this chamber raises the plunger 26 thereby liftingthe valve 28 (which, with its seat 29, is upstream from manifold 19)against the compression of spring 31, and this simultaneously lifts thefour arms 51 of the spider which thereby lift all four of the sidevalves 42.

The rate of opening of the valves is controlled by hydraulic fluidpresent in chamber 37 which, when the pressure rises, is forced out theorifice 36 at a rate determined by the size of the orifice. Thus, all ofthe valves open gradually so that the fluids sent into the manifoldspaces 19 and continuously increasing rate, until the valves are allfully opened. This gradual opening of the valves is of an advantage inthe operation of rocket motors by use of liquid propellants particularlywhere the propellants are spontaneously combustible. When mutuallyspontaneously combustible propellants are used such as aniline andfuming nitric acid, it sometimes happens that combustion does notimmediately take place upon impingement in the motor chamber. In suchcase, a considerable accumulation would be dangerous because whencombustion finally did occur, there would be more of the propellant inthe chamher than it is designed for, with consequent danger ofexplosion. By the introduction of propellant slowly at first, it isassured that combustion will start before too much of the propellantsget into the chamber.

The construction of the valves so as to operate simul- 22 are introducedslowly at first but at a four side injectors and the taneously insuresthat both fluids willbe injected simultaneously and at the same desiredrate of increase for starting.

I claim:

1. Pressure-operated fluid injection means comprising a plurality ofseparate manifold chambers, an opening having a valve seat upstream fromand leading into each manifold chamber, a seatable valve situated ateach valve seat so that when the valve is seated on the seat the flow offluid through the opening is prevented, one of said valves being amaster valve, a fluid receiving chamber upstream from and incommunication with each valve and fluid entry means into each fluidreceiving chamber, a cylinder in communication with the fluid receivingchamber of the master valve, said master valve having attached to it apiston in the cylinder, the said valves being interconnected with eachother, whereby pressure of the fluid introduced into the fluid receivingchamber of the master valve moves the piston to open all the valves.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which a spring is attached to atleast one of said valves, said spring acting in the direction tending tomaintain the valves closed.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 in which the spring is attached to themaster valve.

4.. Fluid injection means comprising a plurality of separate manifoldchambers, an opening having a valve seat upstream from and leading intoeach manifold chamber, a valve at each valve seat, one of said valvesbeing a master valve, a fluid receiving chamber at the upstream side ofeach valve and fluid entry means into each fluid receiving chamber, acylinder in communication with the fluid receiving chamber of the mastervalve, saidmaster valve having attached to it a piston in the cylinder,the said valves being inter-connected with each other, wherebyintroduction into the fluid receiving chamber of the master valve movesthe piston to open all the valves, said master valve having a hydraulicchamber at the side of the piston opposite the receiving chamber and anorifice from the hydraulic chamber through which fluidin the hydraulicchamber flows out at a gradual rate when the piston moves to. allow thevalves to open gradually.

5. Fluid injection means comprising a plurality of separate manifoldchambers, an opening having a valve seat upstream from and leading intoeach manifold chamber, a valve at each valve seat, one of said valvesbeing a master valve and there being a plurality of other valves withthe master valve centrally located with reference to said other valves,a fluid receiving chamber at the upstream side of each valve and fluidentry means into each fluid receiving chamber, a cylinder incommunication with the fluid receiving chamber of the master valve, saidmaster valve having attached to it a piston in the cylinder, the saidvalves being interconnected with each other, whereby introduction intothe fluid receiving chamber of the master valve moves the piston to openall the valves.

6. Injection means for injecting fluids separately into a chambercomprising a manifold for the first fluid, a plurality of manifolds forthe second fluid, an entrance for fluid into each manifold, a valve ateach entrance, the valve associated with the first injection means beinga master valve, a fluid chamber above said master valve, entry means forsupplying fluid into said fluid chamber, a cylinder above said fluidchamber, a piston in said cylinder attached to said master valve, meansfor urging said master valve into a closed position whereby when fluidunder pressure is introduced into said fluid chamber through said entrymeans said piston and master valve will raise and when the fluidpressure within said-chamber drops said closing means will urge saidmaster valve to its closed position, a connecting arm interconnectingthe master valve with the other valves, the arrangement being such thatsaid valves all open when said master valve opens.

7. Injection means according to claim 6 in which the connecting arminterconnecting the master valve and all the other valves is so arrangedthat when the master valve opens all the other valves open with it andwhen the master valve closes all the other valves close.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS591,588 Burkle Oct. 12, 1897

